I took my car into the dealership to get my oil changed cause they had a $20 special, and I had them also check out my passenger side radiator fan cause it was making noise, it sounded like it was off balance and it was barley hitting the plastic.

They told me the bushings were bad, so its off balance, and I need to replace the whole motor, which is about $500. Can I just pull the motor out and replace the bushings myself? Why would the whole motor need replaceing? Is there any stores that would sell the motor for cheaper? It doenst look like it would be too hard to install, or I can have my mechanic do it, he only charges 30/hr plus parts.

Also, they told me my oil pan gasket was bad, which is odd cause I just replaced it like 1 year ago, and I am not leaking ANY oil, no spots or anything in my garage.. they told me it would be 350 to replace the gasket, which is bull I can just do it my self..

but then they told me my Rear Main Seal was bad, and needed to be repalced, I dont even know what that is... but like I said I am not leaking ANY oil so can it wait or does it really need to be replaced if its bad? They wanted about 1000 to do the rear main seal, which seems outrageous.

So I need some advice.. where would I get a fan motor and is it hard to replace? And can I go without replacing the seal? Its not leaking anything at all and is running fine..

 

The prices are what they are. most dealers charge about $100-$150 per hr. If you cant accept the prices then go elsewhere. Many mom and pop shops charge about $50-$75 per hr. So you can take your chances with them. Keep in mind that because they charge so little they don not pay much in the way of salary so the mechanics they have are a direct result of this. Many are either beginners or simply not too good to begin with. This may not be true of all of them but be weary. I think the best bet is a chain store. The prices are reasonable (we charge $89 per hr) and they have warranties and such similar to a dealership..GL

 

i didnt bother reading the whole thing but radiator fan should be hella easy, just unscrew the old one, put the new one in place, screw it back it, plug it in and then ur done

diy ftw

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 361 accord &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i didnt bother reading the whole thing but radiator fan should be hella easy, just unscrew the old one, put the new one in place, screw it back it, plug it in and then ur done

diy ftw</TD></TR></TABLE>

word

 

YEA, THAT'S WHAT DEALERSHIPS TELL YOU SOMETHING IS BROKEN WHEN IT'S NOT!!!!!!!!!! TRUST ME I HAVE BEEN THERE THEY ARE CROOKS AND BY THE WAY ALL THAT MONEY THEY CHARGE THEY KEEP. THE TECHS GET CRUMBS UNLESS IT'S TECHS THAT HAS BEEN THERE FOR YEARS. SO I WERE YOU DO SOME RESEARCH AND FIX IT.

 

^ please dont post in caps..

The prices the dealer gave you are rediclous..

Mainly the 350 for a oil pan gasket.. what there 30 bucks plus 20 bucks in oil.. it takes mabye 15 minutes to do unless your retarded.

The only thing that could be expensive to do is the rear main seal. You have to drop the tranny,take teh clutch and fly wheel off and then you can get to it. I spent 12 bucks for my rear main seal from where my shop gets our parts from. If your going to have the rear main seal replaced id get a new clutch and get your flywheel resurfaced. But id never pay more than 300 bucks in labor if i were you.

Any shop with qualified techinicans can do this in at the most 6-7 shop hours. I know i can, i took my sweet *** time and only took me 5 hours total. And that was at my house, if i had brought it down to the shop and didnt hav eto run every 20 minutes for tools i woulda had it done quicker.

Good luck!

-Eric

 

interesting thing my fan went out today, and almost costed my car's life.

I was in traffic with the a.c on and I got where I needed, and when I started to walk away from my car I heard hissing. IN other words I burned all my oil down to half a Q, and lost all my coolent. Lucky There was a shell 5 mins away and i got to refill my needs.

don't let this happened to you I hit 225 F when i parked.

There prices are crazy look on the net the whole housing on the net is no more then 150 dollars.

 

If my oil pan gasket was bad..wouldnt I be leaking oil though? Also, they told me they "suspece" the rear main seal is bad, and if it isnt, it should be replaced anyway, what bullsh1t.

I am not leaking ANYTHING at all, so I think I am pretty kosher. I am going to stop by autozone tomorrow and price out a motor, then check online shops, I just need the part number.

Anyways, thanks for the info guys, I figure the price for the main seal was not too outrageous considering the time it takes to do it.

I am going to just wait til I need my oil changed again to do my oil pan gasket since I would need to change my oil and filter anways to do it.

EDIT EDIT EDIT

I found this on the AutoZone wbesite.. is this what I need?

http://www.autozone.com/R,APP2...l.htm

Would I need any other parts or what?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by shadow_ridge &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">interesting thing my fan went out today, and almost costed my car's life.

I was in traffic with the a.c on and I got where I needed, and when I started to walk away from my car I heard hissing. IN other words I burned all my oil down to half a Q, and lost all my coolent. Lucky There was a shell 5 mins away and i got to refill my needs.

don't let this happened to you I hit 225 F when i parked.

There prices are crazy look on the net the whole housing on the net is no more then 150 dollars.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

i would replace it with a better flowing/faster fan, like a GReddy or flex-a-lite fan
i might get called rice but any improvement to the cooling system is a good thing

i woulda turned the heat to full blast and put the windows down

 

Why the hell would a flex-a-lite fan be considerd rice?

You would only need one if you are building a turbo and dont have enough room to mount the turbo on the manifold. Id just get that fan motor from A-Z. And yes, i do belive thats the fan motor our cars use.

-E

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Alpinestar03 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Why the hell would a flex-a-lite fan be considerd rice? </TD></TR></TABLE>

ehh b/c its not stock?
what about GReddy or denso fans?

edit: for your 200posts

 

well dealership are what they are.. the company gotta make money and so does the techs.. rear main seal u gotta remove the whole tranny... oil pan gasket i did mine in like 4 hours.... u gotta remove the downpipe, subframe bracket and undo the bolts in the oil pan. i mean if u go to local shops u can get it done cheaper.. where as if theres a problem they are going to charge u for fixing it again where as dealers we have to fix every comeback no matter what.

 

Surprised no one else said it, if you honestly feel they're "ripping you off" then take it to another dealer for a second opinion.

 

Stealership huh,lol. nice way to put it. first off, any work you can do yourself, do it. especially if you have a back up car. but dealerships are the highest in the land. you can go to a chain place like pepboys or city garage. depends on what you have in town. as far as your oil pan gasket and real seal. sounds like they are slipping you one man. if you have no leaks. don't worry. and yes if your seal was leaking, you'd know. i had mine leak because when i did my swap, i didn't install it 100% correctly. so it had to be redone. a local mod shop charged me like 650 but that included a new ACT clutch performance disk because my old one was soaked in oil and repairing my block. its not a cheap job considering what all needs to be done. but if you do replace the seal do it right. use a flat screw driver and pry from the inner ring. not the out ring. this is where i screwed up. the outer ring is harder plus you can damage the block like i did. so be careful if you do it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by m1ndless &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">They told me the bushings were bad, so its off balance, and I need to replace the whole motor, which is about $500. Can I just pull the motor out and replace the bushings myself? Why would the whole motor need replaceing? Is there any stores that would sell the motor for cheaper? It doenst look like it would be too hard to install, or I can have my mechanic do it, he only charges 30/hr plus parts.</TD></TR></TABLE>

DIY

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by m1ndless &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Also, they told me my oil pan gasket was bad, which is odd cause I just replaced it like 1 year ago, and I am not leaking ANY oil, no spots or anything in my garage.. they told me it would be 350 to replace the gasket, which is bull I can just do it my self..</TD></TR></TABLE>

Honda only charges about $200 (parts/labor) for this. Or DIY for $50. Common thing they can scam on if someone doesn't know anything.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by m1ndless &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">but then they told me my Rear Main Seal was bad, and needed to be repalced, I dont even know what that is... but like I said I am not leaking ANY oil so can it wait or does it really need to be replaced if its bad? They wanted about 1000 to do the rear main seal, which seems outrageous.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Again Honda only charges around $650 (parts/labor) for this. Noramlly they don't says this is bad until they've changed the oil pan gasket, must be a slow dollar week for the shop. The part is only $15, you have to drop the tranny off...labor/skill intensive.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by m1ndless &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">So I need some advice.. where would I get a fan motor and is it hard to replace? And can I go without replacing the seal? Its not leaking anything at all and is running fine..</TD></TR></TABLE>

If you're not leaking oil, ignore sections 2 and 3. As for section 1, I'm yet to cross that in my Honda path.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Alpinestar03 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Mainly the 350 for a oil pan gasket.. what there 30 bucks plus 20 bucks in oil.. it takes mabye 15 minutes to do unless your retarded.


</TD></TR></TABLE>

I would like to see you do an oil pan gasket job in 15 minutes. I am not retarted by any means, but 15 minutes?

 

I dont think its possible to do in 15 minutes. It took me almost 45 minutes to change the gasket for my 79 blazer, but there is nothign in the way, its just unbolt, change, and replace sort or job.

I found a fan motor on eBay for $20 shipped. I am going to get that, and pray it works.

Is replacing the fan motor an easy job?

 

dude.. it looks almost too easy..

I found out my a/c fan on the drivers side went out by moving the fan by hand. It was locked up and hard to move. I got me a part for 85 oem clone replacement nothing fancy. I did think about buying a after market for better cooling, but it would be useless on a NA daily driver...lol

make sure which fan is broken first before you buy.

 

Its the passenger side fan, ive checked it many times. Thanks!

 

avoid $tealerships after the warranty period. many are thieves.
they will likely try to sell you the most expensive fix when many problems are simple-like a bad elect. connection.
techs are paid less than $30/hour.
size up the service manager, the way he talks to you will reveal a lot about their service.


find an indy shop that can/will explain any problem in simple english-ie. the symptoms and why the fix will solve a problem.
even an indy shop can churn unnessary repairs esp. if they advertise themselves as christian.
don't believe any recommendation for your car unless you can independently confirm a problem.
get multiple estimates. proper diagnosis is far more important then saving a few dollars/hour labor.
ask legitimate questions, if they try to avoid answers, avoid them.
when responding to a "$20 special" always expect an upsell finding imaginary problems.
do not fear towing your car from a garage to another-that may not be practical if your car is disassembled in part.

 

I looked today and I cannot see where the wire from my current fan motor goes... and how exactly to get it out. Any ideas?

 

The radiator fan electrical connector is at the bottom, near the coolant reservoir. Go get a flashlight and look.

 

Alrighty, so I just unplug the harness, and how do I remove the little motor, is there screws or clips holding it in? I am at work right now and I am trying to visualize it..

 

If you are just replacing the motor, you probably have to unbolt the fan shroud, and remove the few screws holding the motor to the fan shroud.

Also, if the new motor you have did not have the fan, then you just remove the nut from the old motor, and place the washers, fan, and nut in the correct order on the new motor.

 

wait a min i thought this was about a oil change and a fan, what did i miss??? lol